Hello.

I'm revisiting my final year university project on telecoms fraud detection. I built a system that generated call records and used a MATLAB neural network to analyze them for fraud. It worked surprisingly well! Now, I'm planning to rebuild the neural network in C# as a learning exercise to understand the underlying algorithms better. I'll be blogging about the project, neural networks, and the C# development process. Read More

Quick update: Things have been hectic with my house move, so blogging has taken a backseat. Not sure when I'll be back on a regular schedule. Read More

I recently discussed the lack of retail web service APIs for major companies like Tesco, Dixon's, and HMV. I've since discovered an ASDA Soap API on maskell.uk.com. I'm impressed by this development, though I'm uncertain how it's implemented (possibly screen scraping). Check it out! Read More

This post addresses the Google search query "c# convert date from uk to usa." It provides a C# code snippet using CultureInfo and DateTime to convert a date string formatted according to UK conventions into a US date format. The code takes the date string from a textbox, parses it using the UK culture settings (en-GB), and then formats the resulting DateTime object according to US culture settings (en-US) before outputting it to another textbox. Read More

I've just upgraded to RSS Bandit 1.3.0.38 and I'm really pleased with it. This version successfully imported Robert Scoble's huge OPML file, has a refreshed UI, and seems to load large numbers of posts much faster (maybe due to disabling XSLT formatting). Read More

I'm developing Ajax Tagger 2.0 and need ideas for displaying related blogs within the application and its output. I'm also searching for a good search engine (besides Technorati and Google) to find related blogs and feeds. Any suggestions? Please email me or leave a comment. Read More

I've updated the AJAX Tagger and moved it to a new subdomain: ajaxtag.kinlan.co.uk. This should make it easier to access. The old location (www.kinlan.co.uk/AjaxExperiments/AjaxTag2) will still work and be updated alongside the new address. Read More

I've updated my Ajax Tagger 2.0 tool! It now provides related search results and outputs them as OPML, including RSS feeds for search engines like MSN, Technorati, and Google Blog Search. I'm looking for more search engines that offer RSS output. If you know of any, especially for Google or Yahoo, please share! Read More

In a previous post, I discussed using the .NET Framework on the Xbox 360. It turns out you can create Media Center applications, install them on your media server, and then control them via the Xbox 360 UI. The processing happens on the Media Center PC. More details are available in an MSDN article. Read More

The OPML output functionality in my AJAXTagger is now fixed! There was a bug caused by Internet Explorer's lack of support for the __proto__ construct, affecting how the script determined an object's type. This fix resolves the issue, ensuring compatibility with IE6 and IE7. Read More

I was excited about the eBay API becoming free, hoping to build programs around it. However, I'm struggling to find a compelling project idea. Integrating it into my blog isn't feasible due to eBay's dynamic nature, and static integration wouldn't benefit my SEO. A potential idea is an AJAX interface for the Amazon books I feature, but my lack of commission potential is demotivating. My programs usually serve my needs first, like my AJAX Tagger, which helps me provide more info to readers. If I come up with any good eBay API ideas, I'll share them here. Read More

This post addresses the numerous Google searches related to ".NET framework" and "Xbox 360." Despite the search traffic, I currently have no information on this topic. It seems unlikely that .NET Framework would be available on the Xbox 360 due to the console's different chip architecture and the recent introduction of x86 64-bit support in .NET 2.0. However, I remain open to the possibility. Read More

This post addresses the search query "c# instanceof" by clarifying that C# uses "is" and "as" keywords instead of "instanceof" for type checking and casting. The "is" keyword checks an object's type, while "as" performs a safe cast, returning null if the cast fails, unlike an explicit cast which throws an exception. Read More

Inspired by my recent success binding XAML directly to Amazon's web service, I'm exploring the possibility of extending this approach to other RESTful services. Imagine building applications, like my AJAX Tagger, entirely in XAML, without any C# code. This hinges on WPF's capabilities. Do you think it's feasible? Read More

I explored XAML databinding with Amazon's REST API, inspired by a Channel 9 RSS reader example. The XAML code fetches data from Amazon and displays it. A key challenge was handling Amazon's default namespace, requiring a NamespaceManager for correct XPath queries. The provided example demonstrates the basic functionality, and it can be expanded upon. Read More

I've had people come to my blog searching for how to do threading in JavaScript. Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to do true threading in JavaScript. The closest solution I've found involves creating queues that hold work items. Every 250ms (or a developer-defined interval), the queue checks if work needs to be done and starts a task if none is already running. This approach mimics threading. Check out my AJAX Tagger 2.0 for a working example. If you have any insights on true threading in JavaScript, I'd love to hear them! Read More

This post answers the question of how to determine if a given file path in C# is a directory. It explains how to use the File.GetAttributes() method and the FileAttributes.Directory property to check for the directory attribute. The post provides a boolean expression ((File.GetAttributes(path) & FileAttributes.Directory) == FileAttributes.Directory) to effectively perform this check. Read More

I'm consistently impressed by Yahoo's web service team and their responsiveness to users. In contrast, Amazon's web service support is practically non-existent. My simple question about UK support for the TextStream parameter in AWS has gone unanswered for ages, and I know I'm not alone. Amazon, please step up your game! Read More

This post addresses the Google search query "c# define". It explains that, unlike C, where #define creates macros for pre-processor code expansion, C# uses #define for conditional compilation based on symbols passed during compilation. The author briefly notes uncertainty about potential changes in C# 3.0, while suggesting no changes are present in C# 2.0. Read More

Just a quick update: the related images feature in AJAX Tagger 2 isn't fully functional yet. I'll be working on fixing it tonight. Read More